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A new report released today by The Science Coalition illustrates one of the many returns on investment of federally funded scientific research: the creation of new companies. Sparking Economic Growth 2.0 highlights 100 companies that trace their roots to federally funded university research and their role in bringing transformational innovations to market, creating new jobs and contributing to economic growth. An accompanying online database provides free access to company profiles and allows users to sort companies by federal funding agency, university affiliation, type of innovation and other criteria.

The National Science Foundation has awarded collaborative grants totaling $892,587 to three universities to develop data mining tools for electronic health record systems, FierceEMR reports.

The grants were distributed to: Southern Methodist University in Dallas; University of Texas at Arlington; and University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas.

Bioscience Research & Technology Review Day is a special event that features research talks, presentations, mini-symposia, and demonstrations by university scientists. The program provides a unique opportunity for executives and professionals in industry and government to:

• Discover the most recent advances in bioscience and biotechnology at the University of Maryland 
• Promote the potential for academic-industry-government collaboration 
• Meet University scientists and interact with graduate student researchers 
• Network with colleagues who share an interest in the promotion of bioscience and the bioscience industry 
• Recruit employees and investigate job opportunities

Noble Life Sciences, a provider of preclinical research services to pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, announced that its animal facility was awarded full accreditation by the Association for Assessment and Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care (AAALAC International). AAALAC assessment and accreditation programs are designed to recognize organizations that demonstrate excellence in animal care and use.

Organizations volunteer to participate in AAALAC’s program in addition to complying with local, state and federal laws that regulate use of animals in research. Accreditation was awarded following submission of a detailed program description and an in-depth review of the program and facility during an on-site visit by AAALAC representatives. In addition, Noble is currently licensed by the United States Department Of Agriculture (USDA) and meets the assurance requirements of the National Institutes of Health’s Office of Laboratory Animal Welfare (OLAW).

WellDoc(R), developers of BlueStar(TM), the first mobile prescription therapy for type 2 diabetes, today announced it will present the initial results of its hypoglycemia prediction model at the 2013 Diabetes Technology Society Meeting. The model has demonstrated the ability to predict hypoglycemia (a dangerously low blood sugar level) in patients with type 2 diabetes. By using seven days of spot blood glucose monitoring data, with about one blood glucose test per day, the WellDoc prediction model can alert for hypoglycemic events that are likely to occur within the next 24 hours. The methodology for the research will be presented during the scientific poster session at the Diabetes Technology Meeting in San Francisco on October 31.

Hypoglycemia is one of the most dangerous, costly, and difficult diabetes complications to manage. A recent study(1) of 2.4 million type 2 diabetes patients found that hypoglycemia was especially common in patients treated with insulin or sulfonylureas with costs for a hypoglycemia related hospital event averaging $10,362, regardless of a patient’s drug regimen. A 2005 study(2) further reported that patients who had experienced hypoglycemia had 77 percent more disability days per year.

Online health information company WebMD has snapped up Avado, a startup that develops cloud-based software to let physicians and patients interact.

The companies declined to disclose financial information, but said Avado’s technology will be integrated under the WebMD brand and that the founders will join the company to continue developing the technology and business relationships.

For $99, genetic testing startup 23andMe will analyze your DNA, telling you how to live smarter and longer–and what disease might kill you. But there’s another inner frontier to explore in personalized medicine: the bacteria in your gut.

For $89, Ubiome, a startup founded by Jessica Richman–a doctoral candidate at Oxford who did stints at Google and McKinsey after graduating from Stanford in 2009–will send you a kit that harvests the organisms that live inside your body. For additional fees, you can also gather bacteria from your mouth, nose, skin, and genitalia.

The typical university research park is 119 acres (just over 48 hectares), has seven buildings open and is located in a suburban jurisdiction with a population of 500,000 or less.

But urban-style live-work-play campuses are where they’re going, typified by Centennial Campus (affiliated with North Carolina State University), Mission Bay (affiliated with the University of California San Francisco) and the Fitzsimons Life Science District in Colorado (affiliated with the University of Colorado’s academic medical center).

Site Selection for Life Sciences Companies,” a report released this month by business intelligence firm Venture Valuation and KPMG, uses an agglomeration of other reports and proprietary data to analyze key decision factors relevant to the leading life sciences clusters in France, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, Switzerland and the UK.

Why those territories? The authors say those countries are often preferred by foreign companies seeking European or global headquarters. But depending on which factors are emphasized and how they’re weighted, any of the six might stand above the rest.

GrayBug, LLC, a company that focuses on the development of innovative injectable drug delivery systems to more effectively treat eye diseases, has announced the appointment of Michael O’Rourke as President & CEO, as well as Board Member.

“I am excited to take on this leadership role at this pivotal point in GrayBug’s development,” said Mr. O’Rourke. “GrayBug has developed a unique approach to offer superior treatment options to patients through proprietary sustained release drug platforms. I look forward to working with the team at GrayBug to advance our lead product for the treatment of neovascular eye diseases including wet age-related macular degeneration (wet-AMD).”